COINAGE OF THE MINT OF THE UNITED STATES, FROM 1792 TO 1863, INCLUDING THE COINAGE OF THE BRANCH MINTS FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THEIR OPERATIONS IN 1838, AND OF THE ASSAY OFFICE. For the six months ending June 30, 1857. Names and Offices. V. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. MONTGOMERY BLAIR, Postmaster-General. Whence appointed. Salary. ..Maryland.............. $8,000 ALEXANDER W. RANDALL, First Assistant Postmaster-General....................Wisconsin....................................... 3,000 GEORGE W. MCLELLAN, Second Assistan: Postmaster-General.....................Massachusetts... 3,000 ALEXANDER N. ZEVELY, Third Assistant Postmaster-General.....................North Carolina......... 3,000 WILLIAM A. BRYAN, Chief Clerk, Inspection Office.................................... .Virginia.................................... 2,200 Clerks. ST. JOHN B. L. SKINNER, Principal Clerk, Appointment Office................................................New York......... 1,800 .New Hampshire........ 1,800 Massachusetts. 1,900 1,800 1,800 2,000 .Pennsylvania. ....Connecticut Maryland..... JAMES S. HALLOWELL, Disbursing Clerk and Sup't of P.O. Building BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE DEPARTMENT. The What is now called the Post-Office Department was established in 1789 as the "Post-Office," and subsequently as the "General Post-Office," under the power given to Congress by the Constitution "to establish post-offices and post-roads." first act of Congress briefly declares that "there shall be appointed a Postmaster-General," and that his powers and salary and the compensation to the assistant or clerk and deputies, and the regulations of the office, shall be the same as they were under the Congress of the Confederation. This refers the origin of our Post-office system to the old Confederation and beyond. There is, however, but little publicly known of its early history, although the General Office is in possession of some very interesting and valuable materials on the subject. The first recorded notice of any attempt in the colonies to convey letters by post, relates to the petition of certain Boston merchants to the Court, and the subsequent appointment of John Hayward, in 1677," to take in and convey letters according to their direction." This ap pears to have been the first postal arrangement in America. By gradual but untraceable growth, local arrangements like the above became general; but there was nothing like system until 1710, when the British Parliament authorized the PostmasterGeneral "to keep one chief letter office in New York, and other chief letter offices in each of Her Majesty's provinces or colonies in America.” Deputy Postmasters-General for North America were subsequently from time to time appointed by the British Postmaster-General. Colonel Spottswood was one of these in 1737, as in that year he appointed Benjamin Franklin Postmaster of Philadelphia. Franklin was subsequently employed as comptroller of several post-offices, and, in 1753, was made Postmaster-General jointly with William Hunter. Down to that time the American office had never paid any thing to that of England. Franklin and Hunter were promised £600 a year between them if they could make that amount out of the profits of the office; and this Franklin's fertility of resources and initiative mind enabled them, after some time, to do. The improvements in the mails which he introduced were at first so expensive that the office sunk £900 in four years. But after that it began to pay both him and the Crown a handsome revenue. In 1774, when he was dismissed, it was yielding a clear revenue to the British Treasury of £3000 per annum, just three times as much as the yield from the PostOffice of Ireland at the same time. Speaking of this progress of the office under his management and of his dismissal, Franklin quaintly observes, "Since that imprudent transaction they (the British Ministry] have received from it-not one farthing." On the 26th of July, 1775, the Continental Congress ordained that a Postmaster-General be appointed for the United Colonies. Under thus ordinance, Benjamin Franklin was unanimously chosen Postmaster-General. He was allowed $1000 per annum for himself, and $340 for a secretary and comptroller. The Articles of Confederation of 1788 gave to Congress "the sole and exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating postoffices from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of an office.” Very little progress was made under the Confederation. It was the "Post-Office" system thus imperfectly traced from its first perceptible be ginnings that was continued by the act of September 22, 1789, above noted. Under that act we have the earliest reliable statistics of its operations, commencing in 1790. Its subsequent progress and present condition are exhibited in the statistical tables hereto appended. CONDITION AND OPERATIONS OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1863. The following statement is condensed from the Report of the Postmaster-General dated Oct. 31. showing an increase over the number of letters of this class received during the previous year of 8052, or 76 per cent., and an increase in the aimount of money enclosed of $31,322.42, or 67 per cent. Number of Post-Offices.-The whole number of | post-offices remaining established on the 30th of June, 1863, including the suspended offices in the insurrectionary States, was 29,017, showing an increase over the preceding year of 172. Postmasters are appointed at 550 of these offices by the President, and at 28,497 by the PostmasterGeneral. Finances. During 1863 the financial condition of the department was one of increasing prosperity, the actual postal revenue nearly equalling the entire expenditures,-the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84, and the former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. There is, therefore, good reason to expect that within a brief period the department will become selfsustaining. Comparison of receipts and expenditures for 1860, 1862, and 1863. The postal expenditure in 1860, the Excess of expenditure in 1860.. $14,874,772 89 11,314,206 81 3,560,566 05 $11,163,789 59 8,518,067 40 Excess of revenue in 1863...... $2,615,722 19 Showing that while the annual cost of postal service was three and one-half millions less than when it was uninterrupted throughout the Union, the receipts therefrom were increased to the extent of more than $2,600,000. The expenditures of 1863 were...... $11,314,206 84 The expenditures of 1862..................... 11,125,331 13 From the above comparison of the receipts and expenditures of the last two fiscal years, it appears that the increase of expenditure in 1863 bears but a small proportion to the increase of the revenue, the one being about 6 per cent, of the other. Stamps and Envelopes issued.-The value of the stamps issued (1863) was 89,683,384; of stamped letter envelopes, $634,821; and of stamped newspaper wrappers, $20,545. The aggregate value of the issue of the year under notice, as compared with that of the preceding year, shows an increase of $2,503,668. Value of Stamps sold.-The total value of stamps and stamped envelopes sold by postmasters during the year, as ascertained from the records of the Auditor of the Treasury, for this department, was $3,621,529.62, which exceeds, by $2,714,397.73, the sales of the previous fiscal year. Dead-Letters.-The whole number of ordinary dead-letters of every description received and examined during the year was 2,550,416, being 268,398 more than in the preceding year. The number of these letters which contained money was 18,527, and the value of their contents was $77,861.31, Of these letters, there were registered and mailed for delivery to their respective owners during the last fiscal year, 18,219, of which 15,048, containing $63,627 72, were finally delivered. The number of dead-letters covering deeds, bills of exchange, drafts, and other valuable papers, received, registered, and returned for delivery to the writers, was 8332, and the aggregate nominal value of their contents was $1,544,277.81, being a decrease in the number of this class of letters, as compared with the previous year, of 1431, and in the value of the enclosures, of $645,172.19. Of these letters. 7559 were delivered to the owners. During the year, 16,763 valuable letters or packages of a third class were received and registered. Of these, 12,579 were sent out for delivery, 10,918 of which contained daguerreotypes or photographs, 761 articles of jewelry, and 897 miscellaneous arti cles. Out of the whole number sent from the deadletter office for delivery, 8273 were restored to the writers or senders. Under the authority given to the PostmasterGeneral by the act approved January 21, 1862, 1,007,255 ordinary dead-letters, not evidently worthless, were placed in new envelopes and returned to the offices where originally mailed, to be delivered to the writers. Of this number, 4898 were sent to banks and insurance companies, 89,612 to business firms, and the remainder to individuals. Of the whole number sent out for restoration to the writers, 287,211, being about 25 per cent., were again returned to the department. After deducting from the whole number of letters sent out, such as were returned a second time, and those sent free of postage, including hospital letters, &c., there remained 692,220 letters on which dead-letter postage was collected at six cents each, yielding a gross revenue to the department of $41,533.20, which exceeds by $21,533.20 the aggre gate compensation of the clerks employed in sending out these letters. Foreign Dead-Letters.-The number of deadletters returned unopened to foreign countries during the year was 137,145, and the amount of unpaid postage thereon was $9,281.40. The number received in the same condition from foreign countries was 51,619, on which the unpaid postage amounted to $1,479.53. Special and Local Agents, Route Agents, and Baggage-Masters.-The number of special agents in the service at the close of the fiscal year was sixteen, whose aggregate salaries amounted to $26,500. The number of route agents was 387, at an aggregate compensation of $289,260; the number of baggage-masters in charge of through or express mails was 93, at an aggregate pay of $7440; and the number of local agents was 45, at a compensation of $27,824. Letter-Carriers.-The law authorizing the free delivery of mail-matter by carriers took effect on the 1st day of July, 1863. About that time the system was put in operation at 49 of the larger offices, with a competent corps of carriers to each, numbering in the aggregate 449, at an aggregate annual compensation of $300,680. Foreign Mails.-The aggregate amount of post-¡ age (inlaid, sea, and foreign) upon the mails exchanged during the year with Great Britain, Prussia, France, Hamburg, Bremen, and Belgium, was $1,224,675.21; an increase of $80,579.39, as compared with the preceding year. Of this amount, $757,038.99 was collected in the United States, and $467,636.22 in Europe: the excess of collections in the United States being $289,402.77. The total postages upon mails exchanged with the British North American provinces was $225,743.30, being an increase of $17,989.79 over the amount reported for the previous year. Of this amount, $124,480.45 was collected in the United States, and $101,262.85 in the British provinces. Excess in favor of the United States, $23,217.60. The total postages upon the mails conveyed to and from the West Indies amounted to $54,997.24. The amount of United States postages on the mails exchanged with Central and South America, via Aspinwall and Panama, was $15,078.26. The total cost of the United States transatlantic mail steamship service was $332,840.80; being the aggregate amount of the sea postage on the mails conveyed. The earnings of the several steamship lines were as follow: The Liverpool and New York and Phi- $180,076 51 72,643 40 46,229 91 33,234 95 Transportation Statistics.-Exhibiting the service as it stood on the 30th of June, 1863, in the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Western Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, California, Oregon, Kansas, and the Territories of New Mexico, Utah, Nebraska, Washington, Colorado, and Dakota, at which time there were in operation in those States and Territories 6161 mail routes, the number of contractors being 5595. The length of these routes was 139,598 miles, and the mode of service divided as follows, viz :— The annual transportation of mails was 56,226,015 miles, costing $5,740,576, divided as follows, viz.:Railroad, 22,871,558, at $2,538,517,-about 11 cts. a mile; steamboat, 2,004,771,at $224,542,-about 11 cts. a mile; all other conveyance, 31,349,686, at $2,977,463,-about 94 cts. a mile. Compared with the service of the 30th of June, 1862, the length of routes is increased 5585 miles, with an annual increase of transportation of 2.793,490 miles, at a decrease in cost of $113,258, being about two per cent. To the cost of transportation ($5,740,576) there should be added the salaries and pay of route agents, local agents, mail messengers, &c.,—in all, $196,046.06,-making the total cost of service in 1863, $6,236,622.06. INTERNATIONAL POSTAL CONFERENCE.-In July, 1863, at the invitation of the Post-Office Department of the United States, a postal conference was held at Paris to consider the subject of greater uniformity of administration in international pos tal affairs. The conference was attended by delegates representing the Post-Office Departments of France, Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Switzerland, the Sandwich Islands, the Hanseatic League, and the United States; the last named being represented by the Hon. John A. Kasson, who first made the sugges tion of such an interchange of views. The result of their deliberations was the adoption of a code of thirty-one rules, to be recommended to their several governments as the bases of action in making postal treaties or conventions. The sys tem suggested in these thirty-one rules has already been adopted by the governments of Belgium, Italy, and the United States. About onehalf of the rules affect matters of administration exclusively; those which have a popular interest are noticed in the subjoined summary, and, if generally adopted, they will greatly facilitate international postal intercourse, by reducing the present cumbrous system of complex rates and weights, and conflicting rules and regulations, to something like simplicity and uniformity. Section 1 divides all matter, to be carried by international mails, into six classes,-ordinary letters, registered letters (two classes), corrected proofsheets, &c., samples of merchandise, &c., and printed matter. Section 2 recommends that prepayment should be optional, but that unpaid letters should pay additional postage. Sections 4, 5, and 6 recommend the prepayment of registered letters and printed matter, and that matter fully prepaid shall be delivered without any additional charge whatever. Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 recommend the adoption of the French metrical decimal system of weights in all international postal affairs, and that the standard weight for a single-rate letter shall be 15 grammes (about 07.*), and for a single rate for the other classes (except printed matter) 40 grammes (a little less than 1 oz.), leaving the standard for printed matter for future adjustment. Sections 13, 14, 15 recommend an additional charge upon registered letters, and the payment of indemnity in case of the loss or abstraction of such letters or of their contents. Sections 27 and 30 suggest the adoption of international money-order arrangements, and that provision be made for a class of letters, denominated "urgent," to be delivered by express messengers. The other sections refer exclusively to details of administration. If the code of rules thus described shall be adopted, it will not only simplify international postal affairs, but open the mails to the transmission of printed and other matter in many cases where such matter is now excluded. Changes in the Postal Laws. Weekly newspapers (one copy only) sent by the publisher to actual subscribers within the county where printed and published, free. Standard weight for a single rate, 4 oz. avoirdupois. For each additional weight of 4 oz. or fraction thereof, an additional rate is charged. Postage per quarter on newspapers and periodicals issued less frequently than once a week, sent to actual subscribers in any part of the United States: Semi-monthly, not over 4 oz.... 6 cts. per quarter. over 4 oz. and 66 Postage as above must be paid quarterly or yearly in advance, either at the office of mailing or delivery. Publishers of newspapers and periodicals, not exceeding 16 ounces in weight, may exchange, free of postage, one copy of each publication, and may also send to each actual subscriber, enclosed in their publications, bills and receipts for the same, free of postage. They may also state on their respective publications the date when the subscription express. Publications issued without disclosing the offico of publication, or containing a fictitious statement thereof, must not be forwarded by postmasters unless prepaid at the mailing office at the rates of transient printed matter. Rates of Domestic Postage on Transient Printed Books, not over four ounces in weight, to one address, 4 cents; over four ounces and not over eight ounces, 8 cents; over eight ounces and not over twelve ounces, 12 cents; over twelve ounces and additional weight of four ounces or fraction therenot over sixteen ounces, 16 cents; and for cach of, 4 cents. Circulars, not exceeding three in number, to one address, 2 cents; over three and not over six, 4 cents; over six and not over nine, 6 cents; over nine and not exceeding twelve, 8 cents. On miscellaneous mailable matter (embracing all pamphlets, occasional publications, transient newspapers, book manuscripts and proof-sheets, whether corrected or not, maps, prints, engravings, sheet music, blanks, flexible patterns, samples and sample cards, phonographic paper, letter envelopes, postal envelopes or wrappers, cards, paper, plain or ornamental, photographic representa tions of different types, seeds, cuttings, bulbs, roots, and scions), on one package to one address, not over four ounces in weight, 2 cents; over four ounces and not over eight ounces, 4 cents; over eight ounces and not over twelve ounces, 6 cents; over twelve ounces and not over sixteen ounces, 8 cents; and for every additional weight of four ounces or fraction thereof, 4 cents. Prepayment by stamps is required for all postage on transient printed matter. If letters or other mail matter that should be prepaid happen to reach the office of delivery unpaid, double rates must be charged. Franking Privilege. Authority to frank mail matter is conferred upon and limited to the following persons: First, the President of the United States, by himself or his private secretary. Second, the Vice-President of the United States. Third, the chiefs of the seve ral executive departments. Fourth, such principal officers, being heads of bureaus or chief clerks of each executive department, to be used only for official communications, as the PostmasterGeneral shall by regulation prescribe. Fifth, Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United States, including delegates from Territories, the secretary of the Senate and clerk of the House of Representatives, to cover correspondence to and from them, and all printed matter Under regulations authorized by the act, re-issued by authority of Congress, and all speeches, ligious, educational, and agricultural newspapers of small size, issued less frequently than once a week, may be sent in packages to one address at the rate of one cent for each package not exceeding four ounces in weight, and an additional charge of one cent is made for each additional four ounces or fraction thereof, the postage to be paid quarterly or yearly in advance. News-dealers may pay the postage on their packages of newspapers and periodicals as received, at the same rate that actual subscribers thereto pay quarterly in advance. proceedings, and debates in Congress, and all printed matter sent to them; their franking privilege to commence with the term for which they are elected, and to expire on the first Monday of December following such term of office. Sixth, all official communications addressed to either of the executive departments of Government by an officer responsible to that department: Provided, That in all such cases the envelope shall be marked "official," with the signature thereto of the officer writing the communication. Seventh, Postmasters have also the franking privilege for their official |